Charcoal Production is my business, it has been mine and my fiances focus for a year now. I am going to take the time out to explain where we are with this and what we need to get to the next level and lastly what you stand to gain.

Charcoal business is high risk for persons without the required knowledge, i am here to take the "high" out of the risk and arm you with enough information to make a decision whether or not it is worth your time.

I would also be putting pictures up of the ongoing production, i would try to upload videos too.

Ok, lets begin then.

Charcoal production is the process of burning wood to produce charcoal.
It involves cutting and arranging of wood.
The covering of the wood with 'koriko' or dried leaves and small sticks.
And the eventual covering with sand.

Guess i had to shrink the pictures for it to show.

The process of making charcoal is simple really, the major problem is getting a proper work force.

It is late, so i would continue tomorrow.

Sleep well y'all.

I'm following

Ok, am back.

personaldomest: Ok, am back.

Let's roll mam...

So on the process of charcoal production.

It is a very labour intensive process. It involves the carrying of logs to arrange in a specific way, anything off that way can significantly reduce the number of bags from the heap.

pls i would lik to invest.. pls send me ur mail

Okay, let me not get ahead of myself, let me talk about the challenges of charcoal production and all we have done to improve and surpass them.

1.Getting a workforce.
Getting a workforce is hard for a starter. We got a Togolese workforce. There are some tribes in Nigeria who produce charcoal, but the Togolese are way better at producing, but not just that.

The markudi's are good at producing charcoal, they are even better at stealing. The Togolese are not saints, but a people who come through 2 borders to come into a country to work, not speaking the language, or knowing the terrain hardly makes for a lot of scheming in the stealing department. Loool.

And that is why they are the best.

Kennyfancy: pls i would lik to invest.. pls send me ur mail

Personaldomestic@yahoo.com.

Thank you, i would provide you with all you need to know so you are safe.

It is a little more expensive to bring in the Togolese workforce than it is to get workers from Benue State (Markurdi's).

It costs about N20,000 to bring in one worker.
It is broken down into, a one month advance, registration of person with relevant embassies (I still dont know what to think of that), and transportation of persons to our work site in Kwara state.

Now lets go on to the second challenge,


Getting a Work Site....

I should upload a video now that i have changed the topic to include 'videos'. I think the ones i have here are a little too large. I would figure something out, just give me a little time, am on it.

I'm still following

Getting the Benue work force cost roughly N5,000 per person. Cheaper, but very expensive.

Unlike the Togolese who can live off sourghum and garri, with sundays of beans or rice, the markurdi's would charge 3x in feeding and other miscellaneous expenses, talk less of the micro managing that would necessary to make sure you come up with a profit.

Many a people have considered charcoal trade after being badly burnt by the whole production process. Togolese people are the solution, and we have had no complaints thus far, i mean we have had some complaints, not so much would be the correct thing to say. The last complaints was the mosquito situation, we had to buy 3 mosquito nets for all 10 of them. Cost us N1,500. Nothing compared to what our fellow Nigerians would have had us buy all in the name of working.

Ok, about the site.
Do's and donts.

Do NOT go to Oyo state. Its cool to buy charcoal there, but not so cool as a producer with limited resources. They would bleed you dry!!!

We went to Kwara instead.
A village called LOMA.

They charge 20bucks per bags produced, finish.

About Oyo State.....

Oyo state is the main charcoal production place, and since its inception the people have gotten alot smarter at taxing and making a lot of doe from the producer.

They tax per workforce, they tax per tree and then they tax per bag.

Also the association is like the mafia, they are not playing over there. So if you have below a million, you are better of looking elsewhere.

Oh, and i am not done.

Transportation is like N400 per bag for those trying to sell their goods in lagos.

Those guys would run you down!

Now, for kwara state, it is plenty different.

Apart from the charges per tree, it is cheaper to transport goods to lagos, ranges from 150 - 200N per bag.

And Associations are not nearly as powerful. With N3,000 and a 2 week wait, you are in.

Environmental Protection Agencies where are you!!

personaldomest: Charcoal production is the process of burning wood to produce charcoal.

Wake up people, deforestation is as real as HIV. We don't know the value of what we have until we join Niger republic and co. in Sahara desert.

Business is meant to add value, not destroy it. Even looking at the prices you're getting from the sales, it's obvious that desperation has gotten the better of people's minds.

Every tree is valuable, even the least one produces forage for livestock, checks soil erosion, retains moisture and shades human beings from adverse climate.

You can call me a fool, but just imagine your grandchildren inheriting a desert with nothing viable to do with it and by that time the oil wells have stopped flowing.

I weep for the unborn generation.

I was interested in the business but had a change of mind due to the same reason/concern expressed by kedukc. I can't destroy my environment just because I want to make money. I'll never be happy with myself. What do you guys do to address deforestation. From my investigation, a lot of trees has been fell without planting new ones.

We currently work on over a thousand hectares of belonging to a group of investors who own the land and want it cleared for the purpose of planting Moringa.

Environmental Agencies can at best ask that we set aside a budget to replant trees. Currently there is nothing of such, and truthfully in a country of 160 million people with more than 80% of them living under a dollar a day, the need for a cheap source of fuel is inevitable.

I am not for deforestation, I am a business woman, and though i understand your reasoning, you cannot make that the reason wood would not be cut down.

Would it be more noble if i cut down wood to make paper, or pencils or furnitures?? Would that be something that you are willing to invest in? Would that make me cut less trees?

Like i said earlier charcoal production is my business, and currently we are giving a service to people who want their lands cleared for the purpose of planting. And truthfully, when we are done there, we would continue cutting elsewhere.

I studied your response and I call it a cheap cover up, cos your thread began with no mention of how you acquired the bush land from folks who wanted it cleared; even if your claim is genuine, your thread is blatantly preaching for people to jump into the bush and start hacking innocent trees. How do you justify that?

I'm even more baffled to learn that you're a woman.

Read the following topic... If You have the patience you'd realise the connection between climate change and what you're doing.

https://www.nairaland.com/1213432/how-coping-current-heat-wave#14578777

I understand the connection, what you are not getting is the fact that a need be served.

I am not putting up a cover, my business is as illegal as butchering a cow is to a vegetarian. It must be done.

Emphasis should be based on replanting.

And for now, we are neither large enough or have any pressure on us to do that. I really do understand your point of view, but like me, alot of industries rely on wood and charcoal, even the bread you eat sir.

I am all for a green earth, but i am just a person, and if your cause gains traction i would gladly set aside a budget to a replanting effort.

Now, back to everyone, sorry for the delay, had to do some running around. So, where were we?

Please go on with the issue at hand and forget about those guys, they will always have something to say and they will not stop eating,reading books and all other things that we all enjoy from the woods they claim they want to save. Pleeeeaaaaseeee.

Ok.
So currently we have like 10 people working for us, and we are trying to expand. We are looking at expanding to 250 people, and producing as much as 20,000 bags per month.

On this we need investors.

As regards the safety of your investment, we have a system to make you in charge of your monies at all times without the fear of being defrauded.

This system is...

We have divided every investment in batches of N500,000.

We get a group of persons (or a person)who altogether contribute N500,000.

We dont take the monies, we just have them pledge its availability.

We have the group nominate a person from the group or outside the group to be a full time supervisor on the project. We would handle the feeding and housing of the person


.....

Ideally the group should pay an advance to bring in the workforce. Two options are provided.
The nominated supervisor could come along to bring over the workforce. An option alot of people might not be comfortable with.

The second option is that we bring in the workforce, and all payment are made so that work can commence.


Breakdown per batch of investment...

personaldomest: Ideally the group should pay an advance to bring in the workforce. Two options are provided.
The nominated supervisor could come along to bring over the workforce. An option alot of people might not be comfortable with.

The second option is that we bring in the workforce, and all payment are made so that work can commence.


Breakdown per batch of investment...

check ur pm...sent u an email.

wizecoder.:

check ur pm...sent u an email.

Would do that.

On the breakdown per batch of Investment.

A batch of Investment is N500,000 would cater for

A workforce of 15 people
Two Chainsaws.
Feeding of the 15 people for 6 weeks.
Buying of hoes and cutlasses.
Buying of Bags.
Payment of Supervisor.
And other possibilities that may show up.(i.e. A trip to the movies with my fiance) lol, scrap that, just kidding.


From a batch of investment we expect 1,000 to 1500 bags every 6 weeks.

For those who have gotten in touch with me, thank you.

For those who have gotten in touch with the aim of buying containers of charcoal, here is my proposal....